LSS10999 wrote on 2022-05-07, 06:44:Costronic had some PCI-ISA adapters, though without any support (you need to write your own drivers). […]
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Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-05-06, 22:44:
Heres a thought... since industrial boards are so expensive, and likely dont have support for an FDC on ISA, could a PCI or PCIe to ISA adapter be made? I know modern systems can run SSDs through PCIe, but could I run an FDC using an adapter?
Costronic had some PCI-ISA adapters, though without any support (you need to write your own drivers).
Traditional FDC utilizes DMA which is usually hardwired to chipset's ISA/LPC DMA channel 2, and in most cases Super I/O chips have built-in FDCs.
If you're trying to use FDC with a very modern board you have to look for ways that don't use DMA. Newer Intel chipsets since 100 (Skylake) dropped full LPC in favor of eSPI, which cannot provide legacy DMA... so no more traditional FDC. Running FDCs using non-traditional modes may require additional drivers or programming logic.
On the other hand, for modern PCs that still need floppy disks you can consider using USB floppy drives which is more available.
the FDC ive gone with is the XT-FDC, the sort of DIY FDC that can support 4 FDDs. I know its slower than a traditional FDC, but its cheap, decently available, and does what i need. If that could be configured to use something other than DMA, It could work on industrial boards. The idea of using an PCI to ISA adapter would allow me to choose a cheaper mobo. Im targeting LGA775, with a Pentium 4 670 so im not going to new for this build.
Edit: For context, im planning a build using 4 FDDs, a 720k 3.5, 1.44 3.5, 360k 5.25, and 1.2 5.25, and a CD burner drive to write OS's, programs, drivers, games, etc to proper media for whatever pc I may get ahold of to restore and flip, or restore and keep for collection, or build some for gaming use. I find it easier than installing over network, as modern cables dont fit older ethernet ports, as is the case with my Win98SE system. And I find it interesting to build something that no one would typically build.